Robot 6

Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes

Technology | Apple said it is adding new security measures to its iTunes store after a developer reportedly hacked into numerous customer accounts to boost the ranking of his comic apps, which briefly dominated the book category. The company claims the weekend incident was an isolated — about 400 of its 150 million iTunes users were affected — but customers tell The Wall Street Journal that hackers have hijacked accounts before, with Apple doing little to stop them. [The Wall Street Journal]

Conventions | Heidi MacDonald looks at the tug of war between San Diego, Los Angeles and Anaheim for Comic-Con International, and the tough decision facing event organizers. “This has been by far the most challenging thing we’ve ever done,” said David Glanzer, the convention’s director of marketing and public relations. “Nobody thought we wouldn’t have a decision by June.” The board hopes to make a decision before this year’s event kicks off in two weeks. “If we don’t [make an announcement],” Glanzer said, “a lot of the focus is going to be on that.” [Publishers Weekly]

Digital publishing | Devin Faraci offers some criticisms of the Marvel Comics app: “The inability to access your Digital Comics Unlimited on the iPad wouldn’t be so bad … if the Marvel app itself wasn’t so lacking in content. I don’t know how the decisions were made when launching this app, but they were all made wrong. 500 books were available on launch, and there are apparently 600 or so on there … but it feels like a sparse collection of almost random books. Part of this comes from the fact that titles relaunch semi-yearly now, so there could two or three different Avengers titles in there. But even if you figure out which series of Avengers is which, and then figure out which issues go where, the content remains spotty.” [CHUD.com]

Legal | Tomomichi Amano takes a look at the issues surrounding the defeat last month of a controversial bill in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly that would have tightened regulations on the sexual depictions of minors in manga, anime and video games: “Every prefecture in Japan has a juvenile protection stricture which describes what defines an ‘unwholesome book,’ and rules that govern where and how such books can be sold. Industry groups such as the Japan Book Publishers Association (JBPA) say they have asked publishers to place voluntary constraints on the material they publish –- such as labeling manga with ‘not for minors’ logos and toning down sexual content. But the stakes are potentially high for publishers. Once a manga is labeledas an ‘unwholesome book,’ it can no longer be carried in Japan’s ubiquitous convenience stores. And non-bookstore purchases account about 60% of total sales of comic magazines, says Tamio Kawamata, an official at the JBPA.” [Japan Real Time]

Afrodisiac

Awards | Afrodisiac, by Brian Maruca and Jim Rugg, has been selected by the professional design association AIGA as one of the 50 best designed books/book covers of 2009. [AdHouse Books]

Creators | St. Louis Magazine profiles DC Comics Co-Publisher Jim Lee, who grew up in the city: “It wasn’t abundantly clear that I was going to become a guy who would make a living drawing people running around with their underwear outside of their clothes. I thought of comics as a hobby for a long time.” [St. Louis Magazine]